State Rep. Burke Meets and Greets Residents

Local residents had a chance to get up close and personal with the new 36th District State Rep. Kelly Burke at the on Monday.

The evening meeting, hosted by the Evergreen Park Chamber of Commerce, was initially organized to give business owners a platform to address the high property taxes in the district and gain a better understanding of the budgeting process in the state legislature. The meeting, however, took a very different turn as residents instead directed the conversation about the future of the states' economic situation and learning more about the inner workings of the life of a state representative.

The first topic Burke addressed was state budgeting.

“In the past…the budget would just land on your desk two days or 12 hours beforehand,” said Burke. “So legislators had very little to do with actually crafting the budget. What the plan supposedly is now…is that the state government will now be implementing a process called budgeting for results. So you basically start at zero and then justify why you need any expenditures. The thought behind this is there are a lot of programs that have outlived their usefulness, while some are duplicative. So the state government has to really evaluate what programs they really need.”

Burke stressed that the goal of the government is not to stop spending but instead rethink how and what it spends taxpayers' money on to better balance the budget.

The thought of a stricter budget had some residents wondering what the fate of pensions, schools and workers' compensation would be.

“The pension situation is a bit nebulous. However, they are looking into reforms that would save some money for the state and also businesses. In regards to workers' compensation, if reforms are instituted, it will be a balancing act between workers and business owners rights and just trying to make sure everyone has due process. School performance hearings are going on right now and there is a lot of talk about school district consolidation. There are over 800 school districts and [Gov. Pat Quinn] wants to bring it down to 300 but we will see where that goes.”

Burke took time out to address the bills she is currently working on.

“At the present moment, I am looking into different ways to strengthen the procedures that businesses use to destroy sensitive information they collect on paper and keep in electronic databases. I also want to strengthen how businesses notify people if their information has been compromised.”

Burke also explained why she was the only state representative that voted against several pro-gun bills that passed out of the house agriculture committee which would allow state law to preempt any municipal laws regarding gun control.

“A lot of gun legislation comes through the agriculture committee, which I am on. Like I said, I am only one of two people from Cook County on that committee. The rest of the people on the committee are from rural and downstate areas and they have a different view of what good gun policy is, but I am from an urban area so I see the importance of gun control. That day when we took a vote the other person [from Cook County] was not there, but I believe I made the right decision for my district."

In terms of juggling home and work life, Burke admitted that she was extremely busy due to her weekly trips back and forth from Springfield to Oak Lawn, where the 36th District office is located. 

“Home life is interesting,” she said laughing. “However, as the people’s representative I sometimes have to sacrifice some time at home in order to make sure I am serving my district properly. It’s important for me to try to return phone calls personally and do meet and greets because if I don’t get a sense of what people are thinking, how can I represent them?”